LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservatives have a two point lead over Labour in marginal seats, a poll showed on Thursday, a further indication that Britain could be heading for an inconclusive election. Thirty-nine percent of those polled said they would vote Conservative, and 37 percent said they would support Labour in the YouGov/Channel 4 News survey of 60 key marginal seats.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservatives have a two point lead over Labour in marginal seats, a poll showed on Thursday, a further indication that Britain could be heading for an inconclusive election.
Thirty-nine percent of those polled said they would vote Conservative, and 37 percent said they would support Labour in the YouGov/Channel 4 News survey of 60 key marginal seats.
In the sudden slurry of revelations about Michael Ashcroft, are we missing the bigger picture - and a far larger scandal? The immediate disgrace is plain enough. The billionaire Ashcroft has jostled his way into the heart of the Conservative Party, and altered the shape of British politics, with money hoarded away in a tax haven. He evidently finds the idea of paying a small share of his fortune to keep his country's schools and hospitals and defence running so abhorrent that he would rather stash the vast majority of his cash in the bitterly poor tax haven of Belize. (He pays no tax at all there, despite the fact that 30 per cent of the country's children go hungry.) And he did it all disingenuously: when he was scraped into the House of Lords on William Hague's recommendation in 2000, he gave a "clear and unequivocal assurance" he would become a "permanent" resident in Britain.
A lot of people - who care at all - are feeling that a hung parliament is the best possible outcome.
It'll give the LibDems some leverage they wouldn't have had otherwise. Let's see what they do with it.
The channel's political editor Gary Gibbon said the result pointed to a "hung parliament" in which the Conservatives would have the largest number of seats but would be 11 seats short of a majority. Britain last had a hung parliament in 1974. Financial markets, which are focussed on Britain's record deficit and want the next government to tackle it aggressively, do not like the prospect of a hung parliament. They fear wrangling between the parties could delay painful but necessary public spending cuts.
Financial markets, which are focussed on Britain's record deficit and want the next government to tackle it aggressively, do not like the prospect of a hung parliament.
They fear wrangling between the parties could delay painful but necessary public spending cuts.
